User talk:Comps
Welcome to Wikipedia!!!
|
WikiProjects that may be of interest to you
You seem quite active in database theory articles. The area needs expert wiki editors quite badly. Perhaps you could also watchlist WP:COMPSCI where occasionally some interesting discussions take place.
By the way, nice work on snapshot isolation! Pcap ping 08:02, 23 September 2009 (UTC)
Thanks. Will do. Comps (talk) 17:09, 23 September 2009 (UTC)
Minor edits
Please don't mark all your edits as WP:MINOR, that has a way more narrow definition than your edits. Thanks, Pcap ping 08:02, 23 September 2009 (UTC)
OK, will try to be more careful with this. Thnx. Comps (talk) 17:11, 23 September 2009 (UTC)
Utilize
Are you playing games? Are you saying you're unaware that concise writing communicates information better? --Dennis Bratland (talk) 15:18, 27 July 2011 (UTC)
- Specifically for "use" and "utilize": I really could not find a difference, except the length, which is a minor difference for a user who usually perceives the whole word at a glance. Nothing to do with conciseness. I see no real difference that worth bothering here. Talking about style, alternating use-utilize may make it better, to break the routine, since the term repeats quite many times in this short piece. Comps (talk) 17:03, 27 July 2011 (UTC)
May have a different connotation than "use":
- Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
- Utilize (v. t.)
- To make useful; to turn to profitable account or use; to make use of; as, to utilize the whole power of a machine; to utilize one's opportunities.
Comps (talk) 17:21, 27 July 2011 (UTC)
- Most readers aren't aware of the difference, and even if they are aware of it, the reader can never be sure if the writer actually meant that, or if they just habitually choose a big word over a small word, which is the most typical case of utilize. Which means it's a skunked term, like "hopefully". If you really want to tell them that something was used well, used profitably, used to superior advantage, you need to say that explicitly. And that raises the more important issue: use is a neutral statement of fact. The special sense of utilize is a value judgement that requires a good citation, and even an effort to find balancing contrary opinions.
In short, utilize sounds like an advertisement, use sounds like an encyclopedia. --Dennis Bratland (talk) 16:51, 31 July 2011 (UTC)
- Most readers aren't aware of the difference, and even if they are aware of it, the reader can never be sure if the writer actually meant that, or if they just habitually choose a big word over a small word, which is the most typical case of utilize. Which means it's a skunked term, like "hopefully". If you really want to tell them that something was used well, used profitably, used to superior advantage, you need to say that explicitly. And that raises the more important issue: use is a neutral statement of fact. The special sense of utilize is a value judgement that requires a good citation, and even an effort to find balancing contrary opinions.
- Note that this is you own private opinion (I wonder where you get it), not supported in any dictionary or text about English that I have seen. Thus you cannot impose your subjective opinion forcefully, unless you prove what you say, or at least bring some evidence to support this. "User" and "use" which are close, are now being utilized many times in the short text, which makes it monotonic. Good style calls for variety in patterns, not for many repetitions... Please reconsider at least to put alternation between "use" and "utilize." --Comps (talk) 18:16, 31 July 2011 (UTC)
- And how many dictionaries did you have to read before you found one that didn't just say that use and utilize are equivalent? Did you look at Wiktionary? It cites four usage guides that say use is preferable over utilize, and only two for the minority opinion that utilize has a special connotation. And even those two are only saying utilize is acceptable in some cases. If those six references are insufficient, I can find more, but really, how many do you need?
This disagreement existed long before I came along and it is why the term is skunked: it distracts from the content of the article, and it can be misleading or biased. And for what? There is no upside. --Dennis Bratland (talk) 15:38, 1 August 2011 (UTC)
- And how many dictionaries did you have to read before you found one that didn't just say that use and utilize are equivalent? Did you look at Wiktionary? It cites four usage guides that say use is preferable over utilize, and only two for the minority opinion that utilize has a special connotation. And even those two are only saying utilize is acceptable in some cases. If those six references are insufficient, I can find more, but really, how many do you need?
- Note that this is you own private opinion (I wonder where you get it), not supported in any dictionary or text about English that I have seen. Thus you cannot impose your subjective opinion forcefully, unless you prove what you say, or at least bring some evidence to support this. "User" and "use" which are close, are now being utilized many times in the short text, which makes it monotonic. Good style calls for variety in patterns, not for many repetitions... Please reconsider at least to put alternation between "use" and "utilize." --Comps (talk) 18:16, 31 July 2011 (UTC)
- Thanks for the references. What I have learned is that "use" is more general, and thus safer to use. You using "skunked" for "utilize" is completely out of line. It is a legitimate word when used for "applying to practical use" even in your Wiktionary reference. This is the additional connotation. Your "majority/minority" applies to the Wiki-utilize article's refs, but even there I have not seen forbidding its use, if used properly.
This applies to all uses of "utilize" I had in Index locking. Thus no reason for "skunked" and change because reasons of conciseness (though it is a shorter word). For style purposes alternating between the two words could be nice. --Comps (talk) 18:14, 1 August 2011 (UTC)
- Skunked just means that it's one of those English grammar questions that people bicker over. "Hopefully" is one of the worst problems. Ending sentences with prepositions and splitting infinitives are notorious examples. Your high school English teacher told you one thing, but linguists and lexicographers say something else. Or look at British and US spelling. Taking sides in these debates is pointy, and it's almost impossible to use "utilize" (or "hopefully") without taking a side in the debate. But since the purpose of a Wikipedia article is to enlighten readers about the subject, and not to bicker over English grammar, the safe choice wins, if there is a safe choice. Unsafe choices, while possibly technically correct are called "skunked terms" because you're bound to annoy somebody and distract from your real goal of writing clearly. It comes from Garner's Dictionary of Modern American Usage [1]
And I admit you're right that using utilize (if used carefully) can break up the monotony of "used" over and over. So I was wrong to say there is no upside; just very little upside, and there are many other was of breaking up monotony. --Dennis Bratland (talk) 18:52, 2 August 2011 (UTC)
- Skunked just means that it's one of those English grammar questions that people bicker over. "Hopefully" is one of the worst problems. Ending sentences with prepositions and splitting infinitives are notorious examples. Your high school English teacher told you one thing, but linguists and lexicographers say something else. Or look at British and US spelling. Taking sides in these debates is pointy, and it's almost impossible to use "utilize" (or "hopefully") without taking a side in the debate. But since the purpose of a Wikipedia article is to enlighten readers about the subject, and not to bicker over English grammar, the safe choice wins, if there is a safe choice. Unsafe choices, while possibly technically correct are called "skunked terms" because you're bound to annoy somebody and distract from your real goal of writing clearly. It comes from Garner's Dictionary of Modern American Usage [1]
- Thanks for the references. What I have learned is that "use" is more general, and thus safer to use. You using "skunked" for "utilize" is completely out of line. It is a legitimate word when used for "applying to practical use" even in your Wiktionary reference. This is the additional connotation. Your "majority/minority" applies to the Wiki-utilize article's refs, but even there I have not seen forbidding its use, if used properly.
regarding database testing
Hi, I added a section of database testing to database. You said to create a new page for it but I created article page for it and got deleted from administrator 3 times previously and they suggested to add it in database page ,so i added. I assure you to add more useful content to it as i progress so please revert changes and let the section database testing be there i will keep it improving. Thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 110808028 amol (talk • contribs) 13:44, 8 October 2011 (UTC)
Hi,
I do not know about your independent article, and I'm not sure that such is justified at all (I guess the other administrators had their reasons for deletion), but I do not find a place for it in the Database article since database testing does not include specifics (for databases) that I would think have interest for general audience. Of course you test new DBMS code as well as new app code as you do during any SW development. The fact that there exists specialization in testing of some specific type of SW does not mean it justifies an article or even a section. It is like explaining in the Database article how a general-purpose computer works since computers are utilized. --Comps (talk) 06:48, 10 October 2011 (UTC)
Undoing product name in database vendor list
HI, so you removed a product name, but can the vendor actually be in there? Don't see why not Itafran2010 (talk) 00:32, 11 October 2011 (UTC)